Deck 11: Marriage

Question 1

To understand royal endogamy, it is useful to distinguish between the manifest and latent functions of customs and behavior. The manifest function of a custom refers to the reasons people in a society give it. Its latent function is

A) the genetically motivated reason for the custom.
B) a subconscious effect that the custom has on society members' identification with that belief.
C) the socially constructed perspective of why the custom exists.
D) an effect the custom has on the society that its members don't mention or recognize.
E) the emic effect the custom has on the society, recognized only by anthropologists.

Answer 1

an effect the custom has on the society that its members don't mention or recognize.

Question 2

Why does exogamy, the practice of seeking a husband or wife outside one's own kin group, have adaptive value outside of biological concerns?

A) It increases the likelihood that disadvantageous alleles will find phenotypic expression and thus be eliminated from the population.
B) Exogamy creates new social ties and alliances, providing access to more resources and social networks.
C) It impedes peaceful relations among social groups and therefore promotes population expansion.
D) It was an important causal factor in the origin of social stratification.
E) Exogamy is not adaptive; it is just a culture construction.

Answer 2

Exogamy creates new social ties and alliances, providing access to more resources and social networks.

Question 3

A recent cross-cultural study of 87 societies, all of which had incest taboos, investigated the rate at which such taboos were broken. The results of this study add to the evidence that

A) cultural universals, like the human ability to make fire, always have a genetic basis.
B) Freud was right: children everywhere have sexual feelings toward their parents.
C) although tabooed, incest does happen.
D) many societies need better educational systems.
E) many societies need better techniques of social control.

Answer 3

although tabooed, incest does happen.

Question 4

In a society with two exogamous lineages or moieties, who is the preferred cross-cousin bride for a male ego?

A) MBD
B) MZD
C) FBD
D) FZS
E) FZB

Question 5

In South Sudan, a Nuer woman can marry a woman if her father has only daughters but no male heirs. This is done to maintain the patrilineage. The "wife" has sex with one or more men until she gets pregnant. The children born are then accepted as the offspring of both the female husband and the wife. What is important in this example is

A) the fact that only same-sex marriages are recognized in patrilineal societies.
B) social rather than biological paternity, again illustrating how kinship is socially constructed.
C) how biology overrides culture regardless of human intentions.
D) how often marriage is simply about property.
E) that it illustrates how romantic love is both universal and complicated.

Question 6

In the United States, the rise in female employment, especially in professional careers, when coupled with ________, has dramatically increased household incomes in the upper classes. This pattern has been one factor sharpening the contrast in household income between the richest and poorest populations of Americans.

A) homogamy
B) serial monogamy
C) endogamy
D) sororal polygyny
E) exogamy

Question 7

Which of the following is ego's cross-cousin?

A) MBS (mother's brother's son)
B) FBS (father's brother's son)
C) MZD (mother's sister's daughter)
D) FBD (father's brother's daughter)
E) MZS (mother's sister's son)

Question 8

The incest taboo is a cultural universal, but

A) not all cultures have one.
B) not all cultures define incest the same way.
C) not all cultures know about the consequences of incest.
D) some cultures have replaced it with the levirate.
E) some cultures practice gerontology anyway.

Question 9

Among the Yanomami of Venezuela and Brazil, as in many societies with unilineal descent, which of the following is true?

A) Marriage between parallel cousins is preferred, whereas marriage between cross-cousins is considered incest.
B) Marriage between cross-cousins is preferred; marriage between parallel cousins is considered incest.
C) Marriage between first cousins is preferred, but marriage between second cousins is considered incest.
D) Marriage between sororal cousins is preferred, although marriage between levirate cousins is considered incest.
E) Marriage between Crow cousins is preferred; marriage between Omaha cousins is considered incest.

Question 10

Although the incest taboo is a cultural universal, cultures define incest differently. For example, in many cultures it is incestuous to marry parallel cousins but not cross-cousins. What is the difference?

A) The children of two brothers or two sisters are parallel cousins. The children of a brother and a sister are cross-cousins.
B) Parallel cousins are socially recognized relatives, but cross-cousins are true biological cousins.
C) The children of a brother and a sister are parallel cousins. The children of two brothers or two sisters are cross-cousins.
D) Parallel cousins are true biological cousins, whereas cross-cousins are simply socially recognized relatives.
E) There is no symbolic difference between the two, only a biological difference.

Question 11

How do the rules of endogamy function in society?

A) They prove that the incest taboo is not the cultural universal it was once thought to be.
B) They encourage the extension of affinal bonds to an ever-widening circle of people.
C) They tend to maintain social distinctions between groups.
D) They expand the gene pool.
E) They extend kin ties across classes.

Question 12

What term refers to one of two descent groups in a given population?

A) levirate
B) sororate
C) moiety
D) patriline
E) matriline

Question 13

What is the term that anthropologists use to refer to the biological father of a child?

A) pater
B) creator
C) moiety
D) genitor
E) provider

Question 14

There is no simple or universally accepted explanation for the fact that all cultures ban incest. However, the most accepted explanation for the incest taboo is

A) genetically programmed instinctive horror.
B) a widespread and well-founded fear of biological degeneration.
C) following rules of exogamy is adaptively advantageous.
D) isolated social groups are better at survival.
E) a genetically determined attraction for those most different from us.

Question 15

Which of the following marital customs functions to maintain distinctions between groups?

A) progeny price
B) levirate
C) sororate
D) sororal polygyny
E) endogamy

Question 16

What is the term that anthropologists use to identify ego's socially recognized father?

A) pater
B) genitor
C) creator
D) father
E) mater

Question 17

With unilineal descent, sex with cross-cousins is proper, but sex with parallel cousins is considered incestuous. Why?

A) Cross-cousins are actually parallel cousins.
B) Societies with unilineal descent share a gene that impedes them from developing sexual urges for parallel cousins.
C) This behavior is a human universal explained by Freud's theory of attempt and contempt.
D) Cross-cousins are considered closer relatives than all other kin.
E) Parallel cousins are considered closer relatives than cross-cousins.

Question 18

What term refers to the culturally sanctioned practice of marrying someone within a group to which one belongs?

A) incest
B) exogamy
C) hypogamy
D) endogamy
E) endosperm

Question 19

Which of the following is an example of a rule of endogamy?

A) a taboo on marrying members of the same totemic group
B) the Nazi law forbidding Aryans from marrying anyone but other Aryans
C) a taboo against marrying within the same village
D) a taboo on mating with members of one's extended family
E) the incest taboo

Question 20

All cultures have taboos against ________, sexual relations with someone considered to be a close relative, although precisely what constitutes a close relative varies across cultures.

A) levirate
B) sororate
C) fraternal
D) incest
E) exogamy

Question 21

A Nuer woman married to a woman can be the pater of a child she did not father. Native American berdaches, biological men who represent a third gender, sometimes assume the role of a wife when married to a man with whom they share the products of their labor. Cross-cultural examples such as these illustrate

A) that the concepts of gender and marriage are more socially constructed in some societies than others.
B) how, if they were to be made legal, same-sex marriages could easily benefit from the same legal rights different-sex marriages already enjoy.
C) the rare social phenomenon of polyandry.
D) how same-sex marriages make good economic sense.
E) how Edmund Leach was wrong to suggest that all societies define marriage similarly.

Question 22

Incest is a cultural universal that is defined the same way by all cultures.

Question 23

Cultures have different definitions and expectations of relationships that are biologically or genetically equivalent. In other words, kinship is socially constructed.

Question 24

What is the name of the custom by which a widower marries the sister of his deceased wife?

A) sororate marriage
B) serial polyandry
C) filial marriage
D) levirate marriage
E) fraternal marriage

Question 25

Early anthropologists explained incest taboos as a reflection of "instinctive horror" of mating with close relatives. However, this explanation for incest taboos has been rejected because formal incest restrictions would be unnecessary if humans really do have an instinctive aversion to incest.

Question 26

A new view of early human origins suggests that the emergence of a pair bond between male and female would have allowed humans to recognize their relatives.

Question 27

A lobola, a substantial marital gift from the husband and his kin to the wife and her kin among the BaThonga of Mozambique, is

A) a form of bride theft.
B) only given for elopements.
C) the same as a dowry.
D) widespread in patrilineal societies.
E) widespread in matrilineal societies.

Question 28

Polygamy, although formally outlawed, has survived in Turkey since the Ottoman period, when having several wives was viewed as a symbol of power, wealth, and sexual prowess. Unlike the past, when the practice was customary and not illegal, polygamy can put contemporary women at risk. How?

A) Women in polygamous unions have less of a chance to marry several men themselves.
B) Because their marriages have no official status, secondary wives who are abused or mistreated have no legal recourse.
C) The increase in the number of wives a man takes on increases inter-wife feuds.
D) As cross-cultural studies have shown, violence against women is correlated with the presence of polyandry in society.
E) Unlike in the past, polygamous unions are no longer unions based on romantic love.

Question 29

Which of the following best defines polygyny?

A) the type of marriage in which there is more than one husband
B) the custom whereby a wife marries the brother of her dead husband
C) the type of marriage involving only two spouses
D) the custom whereby a widower marries the sister of his dead wife
E) the type of marriage in which there is more than one wife

Question 30

Exogamy is the practice of seeking out a mate within one's own social group.

Question 31

Which of the following statements about polyandry is most likely true?

A) It is found only among fishing communities in Madagascar.
B) It is a cultural adaptation to the high labor demands of rice cultivation.
C) It is a cultural adaptation to mobility associated with male travel for trade, commerce, and warfare.
D) Polyandry is almost always sororate.
E) It is legal in the United States.

Question 32

A cross-cultural study that systematically compared romantic love in many cultures found

A) that while people everywhere know what love is, they experience it differently.
B) evolutionary evidence for romantic love in all societies surveyed.
C) a rise in love matches over arranged marriages in industrialized societies, but the opposite trend in nonindustrialized societies.
D) a scholarly bias throughout the social sciences that viewed romantic love as a luxury in human life, especially in academia.
E) evidence that romantic love may be a universal, although romantic love and marriage do not necessarily go together.

Question 33

Divorce tends to be more common

A) when the dowry is very small.
B) when marriages are political alliances between groups.
C) in matrilineal than in patrilineal societies.
D) in societies in which marriage residence is patrilocal.
E) in all societies when romance fails

Question 34

The children of your father's sister are called your cross-cousins.

Question 35

Native American berdaches were permitted to marry men.

Question 36

What is the term for the marital exchange in which the bride's family or kin group provides substantial gifts when their daughter marries?

A) polygamy
B) bridewealth
C) dowry
D) progeny price
E) brideservice

Question 37

Anthropologist Edmund Leach (1955) observed that, depending on the society, several different kinds of rights are allocated by marriage. According to Leach, marriage can, but doesn't always, accomplish each of the following EXCEPT

A) give either or both spouses a monopoly in the sexuality of the other.
B) give either or both spouses rights to the labor of the other.
C) give either or both spouses rights over the latent and manifest functions of the other.
D) give either or both spouses rights over the other's property.
E) establish a socially significant "relationship of affinity" between spouses and their relatives.

Question 38

Polyandry is common and practiced under a wide range of conditions.

Question 39

All of the following are a form of polygamy EXCEPT

A) a man who marries, then divorces, then marries again, then divorces again, then marries again, each time to a different woman.
B) a man who has four wives simultaneously.
C) a woman who has three husbands, all of whom are brothers.
D) a man who has three wives, all of whom are sisters.
E) a man who has two unrelated wives.

Question 40

Which of the following statements about polygynous marriages is true?

A) They are characteristic of high social instability, as with serial monogamy in southern California and Washington, D.C.
B) They frequently involve a hierarchical arrangement among the wives.
C) They are associated with male infanticide.
D) They are characterized by there being more than one husband in a single household.
E) They tend to occur in societies that have more men than women.

Question 41

One theory regarding the universality of the incest taboo argues that by forcing people to marry outside their immediate kin group, peaceful alliances between people would extend to include a greater number of individuals.

Question 42

Does the practice of paying a dowry necessarily imply gender inequality?

Question 43

With polyandry, a woman takes more than one husband.

Question 44

Homogamy is the practice of marrying within a culturally prescribed group to which one does not belong.

Question 45

In tribal societies, unlike industrial ones, marriage entails only an agreement between the people getting married; descent groups play only a minor role.

Question 46

Almost all cases of bridewealth are associated with patrilineal, patrilocal systems. Why? If there were such a thing as groom price, where would you expect to find it? Why? Why do we not find groom service ethnographically?

Question 47

In a study among the Hopi of northeastern Arizona, more than a third of the women of this community had been divorced at least once, which correlates with the fact that these women were socially and economically insecure.

Question 48

Using what you know about cross-cultural comparisons of marital practices, discuss the following statement: Serial monogamy is the result of a cultural emphasis on individualism, whereas polygamy is the result of a cultural emphasis on social responsibility.

Question 49

In the caste system of India, failure to adhere to class endogamy rules traditionally resulted in a ritually impure marriage.

Question 50

Discuss some of the social functions of levirate and sororate marriage and bridewealth, and identify the sociocultural context of these customs.

Question 51

Dowries are most common in societies in which women occupy an elevated status position.

Question 52

Same-sex marriages are not culturally viable institutions.

Question 53

How would you explain the universality of the incest taboo? You may draw on one or more of the explanations offered previously.

Question 54

Royal endogamy among Hawaiians functioned to limit the number of conflicts about royal succession, this explanation being an example of the latent function of a social custom.

Question 55

Polygynous marriages often serve important economic and political functions, with the number of wives a man has serving as an indicator of his wealth, prestige, and status.

Question 56

The biological degeneration explanation for the incest taboo has won over supporters because of universal concerns about biology.

Question 57

If John marries his deceased brother's widow, this arrangement is called a levirate marriage.

Question 58

Cross-culturally, divorce is known only in industrialized societies where a high percentage of women are gainfully employed.

Question 59

Serial polygamy is the practice of having more than one wife, but never more than one at the same time.

Question 60

What are some of the differences between endogamy and exogamy, and how absolute is the distinction implied by these terms? Use examples to illustrate your argument.

Question 61

"A person can have multiple spouses without ever getting divorced." Using the concepts you have learned in this chapter, explain this seemingly contradictory statement.

Question 62

This chapter includes several examples linking marriage practices with issues about property and inheritance. Describe these examples. Based on what you have learned so far about marriage, kinship, adaptive strategies, and political systems, can you suggest ways in which anthropologists could help explain relationships involving property?